Just Shelby (2020)

 Brooklyn James not only challenges herself as a storyteller in her newest release, Just Shelby (2020), but she challenges her readers with a writing style that reveals a mysterious plot of whodunnit at the end.  

Just Shelby may not be everyone’s flavor of a read in 2020 while we’re pausing in the quarantine life as it is a slower read told with dual perspectives; however, slow doesn’t equate to poor art; it’s a matter of taste and delight. The hurry-up-and-get-there type may be looking for a whodunnit murder mystery to be upfront in your face with a character reveal like Game of Thrones (2011-2019) with relentless jousting and jolting with no hesitation to kill the main character in Act 1 Scene 1 of an Emmy Award-Winning television series.  


Just Shelby is more like the Emmy Award-Winning television series, Breaking Bad (2008-2013), taking a slower pace to really nail down the details that it might take a reader more than a minute to gain momentum in the storyline, but the surprise ending makes me appreciate the intricacies of the space utilized in character development and plot setting.  


At its core, Just Shelby is a love story of twists and turns and chasing dreams. A guitar in one hand and a boy in the other. Young love lingers yet it aches from the battered bruises. Childhood. I have yet to meet that person who isn’t unhurt from their introduction into existence. Outrunning your childhood without forgiving the very people that placed you on earth in the first place is impossible. Just Shelby proves that forgiveness is essential to living with one another in order to love ourselves so that we can invite room in our hearts to love someone else.  


Brooklyn James’ deft ability to tell a story from dual perspectives while keeping the plot intact is in the same ballpark as Jodi Picoult’s, My Sister’s Keeper (2004) with more plot ambition that satiates a mature pallet. The reader keeps reading because she’s being pushed in a direction of resolve. Then...Bam. The next thing I know is that the wrong sister died, and I’m left teary-eyed in sheer disappointment with a sneering gut reaction screaming NOOOOO as I throw the book across the room. Now that’s a reaction. A product of wonderful storytelling. Just Shelby is that. A product of wonderful storytelling. Stick with the read because the investment is worth the reaction while pausing in quarantine bliss.  

Comments

  1. MarynanaOctober 20, 2020 at 6:45 PM

    Looking forward to this read. I loved her first novel.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Demon 2: Divorce

    “ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore , what God has joined together, let not man separate. ” They said to Him , “ Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away? ”   — Matthew 19:6, NKJ     Much of my outrage and rebellion in skipping kindergarten had to do with my parents’ divorce. Thankfully, I don’t remember much of it. If there were knock-out-drag-out fights, yelling, screaming, or cursing, I have no recollection. Mom and Dad divorced when I was two years old. Confusion is a symptom of the divorce . I am shuffled back and forth between Mom’s and Dad’s every other weekend; they split or work around holidays, so I can spend time with both sides of my families.    The stress and anxiety that I feel plays a role in my subconscious. The outcome of the divorce creates mental blocks and barriers that kill my hope for the traditional American family in the early ‘80s. Because Mom and Dad divorced when I was young and are midd
Read more

Demon 1: Words Do Hurt

  Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things . See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is to set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on the fire the course of natur e; and it is set on fire by hell.   — J ames 3:5 – 6, NKJ       While in elementary school, my mother and I had an outrageous argument. It isn’t one of those arguments where I scream and shout until my lungs burn from anger and my eyes are swollen from stinging tears. It’s one those verbal fights that leave me scarred for a lifetime. It’s one of those fights that lingered in the back of my mind years after I proclaimed forgiveness of such a hateful phrase. It’s a defining moment in testing my absolute inner self, in knowing that nothing in this world is more important than believing in myself.   My mother told me, “You’re not smart enough to go to college.” In that moment my world changed. At a whopping six-years
Read more